Growing Healthier Tomorrow

A Summary of Our Growth and the Value We Created in 2022

Lipa city

As part of our 40th anniversary celebration, our founder, Simon N. Groot, led the opening of the East-West Seed (EWS) museum, located in the “cradle of East-West Seed,” the Hortanova Research Center in Lipa City, Batangas, Philippines.

Housed in the first EWS building at Hortanova, the museum showcases our company’s remarkable journey over the past four decades through a curated collection of photographs, memorabilia, publications, equipment, and other mementos. Groot’s old office desk and personal scrapbook, which includes photos of Hortanova Farm in its early days, are also featured in the museum.

“This evokes a lot of emotions in me; all the memories come back very strongly,” Groot shared as part of an impromptu speech at the museum’s opening. “It’s been a long road to reach this point.”

He also emphasized that it has been a “long learning experience” for East-West Seed to become what it is today. Even after four decades, we continue to learn, particularly from farmers in Africa and Brazil.

“My main satisfaction is seeing smiling farmers,” Groot added. “The real purpose of our existence is to create a whole world with a few million more smiling farmers.”

Field Day to Celebrate ‘A Healthier Tomorrow’

The East-West Seed Field Day is an event organized to showcase the latest vegetable varieties and farming practices to retailers, farmers, and other stakeholders in the agriculture industry.

The year 2022 was unique as we celebrated 40 years of growing a healthier tomorrow alongside our smallholder farmers. This year’s Field Day, themed ‘Growing a Healthier Tomorrow,’ featured new vegetable varieties, the latest innovations, and best practices in vegetable farming for a sustainable future. Participants also had the opportunity to interact with experts, and exchange knowledge and share experiences with other respected seed industry professionals and smallholder farmers.

Kick off in Nigeria

Our 40th Anniversary celebration began in January with the National Farmers Field Day in Nigeria. Event highlights included a Mock Field Day, which showcased 15 crops and 40 varieties from EWS Nigeria, and the engaging “Real Stories from Real Farmers” conversation sessions

East-West Seed Thailand held over a span of five field days at its headquarters.

As part of our ongoing 40th anniversary celebration, East-West Seed Thailand hosted a series of five field days at its headquarters in Nonthaburi. The event included fun and conceptual workshops led by our experts and showcased our more than 200 varieties of innovative seed products.

The opening ceremony was presided over by Remco van Wijngaarden, the Netherlands ambassador to Thailand, EWS CEO Douwe Zijp, and EWS Thailand General Manager Wichai Laocharoenpornkul. More than 700 EWS farmers were invited to the event to attend workshops, explore educational booths, and visit our fields.

East-West Seed Philippines Honors 40 ‘Farmer Heroes’ and Holds Vegetable Field Day

East-West Seed Philippines honored 40 “Farmer Heroes” to mark its 40 years of “Growing a Healthier Tomorrow.” The award ceremony took place on Oct. 7, 2022, at Lime Hotel in Pasay City.

The following day, East-West Seed hosted a vegetable demo field day at Hortanova Research Center, Lipa City, Batangas, for farmers and business partners.